General

Like other open source projects, the code base for the Eclipse project should avoid using names that reference a particular company or their commercial products.

Eclipse Workspace Projects

When Eclipse is being used to develop plug-ins for the Eclipse project, the name of the Eclipse workspace project should match the name of the plug-in. For example, org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in is developed in an Eclipse workspace project named org.eclipse.core.runtime.

Java Packages

The Eclipse Platform consists of a collection of Java packages. The package namespace is managed in conformance with Sun's package naming guidelines; subpackages should not be created without prior approval from the owner of the package subtree. The packages for the open-source Eclipse project are all subpackages org.eclipse.

The first package name segment after org.eclipse is generally the subproject name, followed by the component name.

org.eclipse.<subproject>.<component>[.*]- General form of package names

API Packages

API packages are ones that contain classes and interfaces that must be made available to ISVs. The names of API packages need to make sense to the ISV. The number of different packages that the ISV needs to remember should be small, since a profusion of API packages can make it difficult for ISVs to know which packages they need to import. Within an API package, all public classes and interfaces are considered API. The names of API packages should not contain internal, tests, or examples to avoid confusion with the scheme for naming non-API packages.

Internal Implementation Packages

All packages that are part of the platform implementation but contain no API that should be exposed to ISVs are considered internal implementation packages. All implementation packages should be flagged as internal, with the tag occurring just after the major package name. ISVs will be told that all packages marked internal are out of bounds. (A simple text search for ".internal." detects suspicious reference in source files; likewise, "/internal/" is suspicious in .class files).

Test Suite Packages

All packages containing test suites should be flagged as tests, with the tag occurring just after the major package name. Fully automated tests are the norm; so, for example, org.eclipse.core.tests.resources would contain automated tests for API in org.eclipse.core.resources. Interactive tests (ones requiring a hands-on tester) should be flagged with interactive as the last package name segment; so, for example, org.eclipse.core.tests.resources.interactive would contain the corresponding interactive tests.

Examples Packages

All packages containing examples that ship to ISVs should be flagged as examples, with the tag occurring just after the major package name. For example, org.eclipse.swt.examples would contain examples for how to use the SWT API.

Additional rules

Classes and Interfaces

Sun's naming guidelines states

Class names should be nouns, in mixed case with the first letter of each internal word capitalized. Try to keep your class names simple and descriptive. Use whole words - avoid acronyms and abbreviations (unless the abbreviation is much more widely used than the long form, such as URL or HTML).

Examples:
class Raster;
class ImageSprite;

Interface names should be capitalized like class names.

For interface names, we follow the "I"-for-interface convention: all interface names are prefixed with an "I". For example, "IWorkspace" or "IIndex". This convention aids code readability by making interface names more readily recognizable.

Additional rules:

* The names of exception classes (subclasses of Exception) should follow the common practice of ending in "Exception".

Methods

Sun's naming guidelines states

Methods should be verbs, in mixed case with the first letter lowercase, with the first letter of each internal word capitalized.

Examples:
run();
runFast();
getBackground();

Additional rules:

* The named of methods should follow common practice for naming getters (getX()), setters (setX()), and predicates (isX(), hasX()).

Variables

Sun's naming guidelines states

Except for variables, all instance, class, and class constants are in mixed case with a lowercase first letter. Internal words start with capital letters. Variable names should not start with underscore _ or dollar sign $ characters, even though both are allowed.

Variable names should be short yet meaningful. The choice of a variable name should be mnemonic - that is, designed to indicate to the casual observer the intent of its use. One-character variable names should be avoided except for temporary "throwaway" variables. Common names for temporary variables are i, j, k, m, and n for integers; c, d, and e for characters.

Examples:

int i;

char c;

float myWidth;

Constants

Sun's naming guidelines states

The names of variables declared class constants and of ANSI constants should be all uppercase with words separated by underscores ("_").

Examples:

static final int MIN_WIDTH = 4;

static final int MAX_WIDTH = 999;

static final int GET_THE_CPU = 1;

Plug-ins and Extension Points

All plug-ins (and plug-in fragments), including the ones that are part of the Eclipse Platform, like the Resources and Workbench plug-ins, must have unique identifiers following the same style of naming convention as Java packages. For example, the workbench plug-in is named org.eclipse.ui.

The names of a plug-in and the names of the Java packages declared within the code library of that plug-in commonly align. For example, the org.eclipse.ui plug-in declares much of its code in packages named org.eclipse.ui.* . While alignment is the recommended practice, it is not an absolute requirement. For instance, the org.eclipse.ui plug-in also declares code in packages named org.eclipse.jface.*. The org.eclipse.ant.core plug-in declares code in packages named org.eclipse.ant.core and org.apache.tools.ant.*.

The plug-in namespace is managed hierarchically; do not create plug-in without prior approval from the owner of the enclosing namespace.

Extension points that expect multiple extensions should have plural names. For example, "builders" rather than "builder".